Clowns in Liberte Auce
Jean De Botton (French 1895 - 1978)

Signed lower left and verso. Number 451.

De Botton had a long and prolific career as painter, illustrator and muralist. His successful career started in the 1920s and continued for four decades. Though he received a degree in Philosophy from the Lycée Rollins in Paris, he went on to travel extensively and become a well-established artist. De Botton’s early paintings display many of the  characteristics of the age of Art Deco, incorporating romantic,  allegorical, and historical themes with a modern technique. He executed  many very large canvases in the 1920’s. He also painted many stylized  portraits. As the decades passed his style changed with the times; in  the 1950s and into the 1960s he painted and exhibited many abstract  compositions.

De Botton served on the jury of the Salon d’Automne and was a member of  the Salon des Tuileries, Salon des Indépéndants, Salon des Humoristes.  He was Vice President of the Salon and President of the Salon France  Nouvellle. Solo Exhibitions between 1936 and 1942 include the Marie Harriman  Gallery, New York; the Rockefeller Center, New York, Carol Carstairs  Gallery; Leger & Co. Gallery, London; Seattle Museum; San Diego Museum;  Philadelphia Art Gallery, Grace Gallery, Boston; Galerie du Livre,  Casablanca; Santa Barbara Museum; Pearl Gallery, Hollywood; Vista del  Arroyo, Pasadena; Francis Tayor Gallery, Beverly Hills; Courvoisier  Gallery, San Francisco; and the Knoedler & Co. Gallery, New York.

De Botton participated in several Carnegie Institute International Exhibitions in Pittsburg, Boston and Chicago. He showed the Official  Exhibition of French Art in Tokyo, Brussels and Anvers as well. In 1925, De Botton exhibited a mural at the Salon d’Honneur des Beaux-Arts, Paris and in 1937 at the Palace of the Navy, Paris. De Botton also received the distinguished honor of serving as the official painter at the coronation of H.M. King George VI in 1937.

Book illustrations include Les Fleurs du Mal by Baudelaire, 1936; Claude  by Fauconnier, edition Firenczi; La Maison du Quai by Caston Cherau,  edition Firenczi; and a children’s book entitled "Fou Fou Discovers  America". In 1942 De Botton designed a poster for the California a  National Guard as well. He delivered a lecture at the San Francisco  Museum of Modern Art in 1941 on the subject of Chiaroscuro and his  theory of its detrimental effect on modern painting. In June of 1944 the  California Palace of the Legion of Honor held a retrospective De  Botton’s paintings, frescoes, murals, drawings, tapestries and book illustrations. The same year he had written the ballet "Triumph of Hope", which was performed at the San Francisco Opera House. Museums in Luxembourg, Versailles and Royan have collected his work.